Use of parkour in primary school physical education to develop motor creativity, divergent thinking, movement competence, and perceived motor competence

Purpose: As an extension of adventure education in school physical education, parkour has the potential to develop problem-solving and creative thinking along with the development of curriculum linked motor competencies and self-competence in a fun and risk-taking environment. This study aimed to investigate whether an adventure education model-based parkour intervention is more effective than the regular physical education in development of divergent thinking, motor creativity, movement competence and perceived motor competence of fourth-grade students. Methods: A quasi-experimental, between group design was used. The participants were 55 fourth-grade students (Intervention: 28 from 1 school, Comparison: 27 from 2 schools) in rural regions. An eight-week parkour intervention (16 sessions) was designed and conducted for the intervention group, while the comparison group continued the regular physical education curriculum. One-way ANCOVA was used for the data analysis (p <.01). Measurement tools included Play Creativity, Divergent Thinking: Realistic Presented Problems, Körperkoordinationstest für Kinder: KTK and Perceived Motor Competence Questionnaire in Childhood (PMC-C). Findings: Significant differences in motor creativity [F(1,52) = 9.76, p =.003, partial η2 =.158], divergent thinking skills [fluency F(1,52) = 33.14, p <.001, partial η2 =.389; originality F(1,52) = 7.39, p =.009, partial η2 =.124], movement competence [F(1,52) = 34.45, p <.001, partial η2 =.398], and perceived motor competence [F(1,52) = 7.44, p =.009, partial η2 =.125] were observed when compared to the comparison group. The intervention integrity was assessed to be 90%, and the attendance rate of the participants in the intervention was 87.2%. Conclusions: This adventure education model-based parkour unit was effective in developing general and movement related creativity, as well as movement competence and perceived motor competence of primary school students. This study has implications for deploying movement exploratory approaches such as parkour as a means to achieve quality physical education characteristics which could involve professional development on the adventure education framework, parkour specific training, as well as non-linear and physical literacy enriched pedagogical practices.